DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

• WHAT ARE THE TWO TYPES OF DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS?

  measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion
• WHAT ARE DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS?

  numerical values that describe patterns in a data set
• WHAT ARE THE MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY?

  mean, median, mode
• WHAT ARE THE MEASURES OF DISPERSION?

  range, standard deviation
• WHAT IS THE LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT OF THE MEAN?

  interval
• WHAT IS THE LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT OF THE MODE?

  nominal
• WHAT IS THE LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT OF THE MEDIAN?

  ordinal
• STRENGTHS OF THE MEAN?

  • most sensitive (includes all values and scores)
  • representative of all data
  • includes all participants
• STRENGTHS OF THE MEDIAN?

  • not affected by extreme scores
  • more reflective of typical trend
• STRENGTHS OF THE MODE?

  • useful for data in categories
  • only measure that allows us to analyse data of a lower level
• NEGATIVES OF THE MEAN?

  • easily distorted by extreme values
  • may not be accurate measure to reflect majority
• NEGATIVES OF THE MEDIAN?

  • less sensitive than mean
  • not representative of all participants' data
  • excludes results of some individuals
  • not reflection of all participants
  • may miss information
• NEGATIVES OF THE MODE?

  • very basic measure
  • excludes a lot of participant data
  • not representative of all data
  • inappropriate for ordinal or interval data
• WHAT DOES THE RANGE TELL YOU?

  spread of data
• WHAT DOES THE STANDARD DEVIATION TELL YOU?

  how far scores deviate from mean
• LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT OF RANGE?

  ordinal
• LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT OF STANDARD DEVIATION?

  interval
• POSITIVES OF RANGE?

  • easy to calculate
• POSITIVES OF STANDARD DEVIATION?

  • more precise
  • includes all values in final calculation
• NEGATIVES OF RANGE?

  • only takes into account two most extreme values
  • unrepresentative of data as a whole
  • does not indicate if numbers are closely grouped around mean/ spread out
• NEGATIVES OF STANDARD DEVIATION?

  • can be distorted by single extreme value
  • extreme values may not be revealed